Kurzweil K2661 Musician's Manual page 433

Sampling and Sample Editing
The Keymap Editor
When you trigger a note, the K2661 identifies the key range where the Note On event occurred.
It also checks the attack velocity value of the note. It then addresses its memory, and retrieves
the sample root that's assigned to that key range and attack velocity value. If the note that's
triggered is not the note where the sample root is assigned, the sample is transposed to play at
the correct pitch. The K2661 then generates the digital signal that represents the sound of the
note. At this point the keymap's job is done, and the signal proceeds through the layer's
algorithm and on to the audio outputs.
You can assign as many key ranges to a keymap as you like, even creating a separate range for
each note. This would allow you to tune each key independently, to create microtonal tunings.
For keymaps that use a single timbre, like the Grand Piano, there's a key range for each sample
root stored in memory. For acoustic instrumental sounds, the more key ranges you have for a
keymap, the more realistic the sound will be, since there will be less pitch shifting of the sample
root within the key range.
Of course, you can assign sample roots with different timbres within the same keymap. Many of
the drum kit keymaps in ROM, for example, have about 20 key ranges, with several different
timbres assigned as the sample roots. You can also create a keymap with a single key range that
spans from C 0 to G 10, if you want to stretch a single sample root from C 0 to G 10. Keep in
mind, however, that samples can be transposed upward only to a limit of 96 KHz for the
playback rate. For 48K samples, that's an octave of upward transposition—or two octaves if you
set the SmpSkp parameter (on the KEYMAP page in the Program Editor) to On or Auto.
Samples can be transposed downward without limit.
Think of a keymap as if it were a single piece of string, divided into different sections that adjoin
one another. Sections cannot overlap. If you have one range that goes from C4 to F4 and another
that goes from F#4 to C5, then if you change the first range to be C4 to G4, the second one will
change to be G#4 to C5.
Also, you can't have "nothing" assigned to a key range. Even if it is Silence (#168), there will
always be a sample assigned to every range in the keymap. This is something to watch out for
when creating drum programs. For example, let's say you are creating a program with 20 layers.
Each layer has its own keymap, which has just one sample assigned to part of the keyboard with
the rest of the key range assigned to Silence. Make sure that you limit the note range of each
layer using the LoKey and HiKey parameters on the LAYER page in the Program Editor. If each
layer covers the entire range, then each note you played would trigger 20 voices (one for each
layer). You would only hear one drum per note because all the other layers are triggering
"Silence." Because of the voice-stealing algorithms in the K2661, the voices would almost
immediately become available again, since they have no amplitude. But for one brief instant, the
voice would be triggered, which could cause other voices to be cut off.
You can also create multi-velocity keymaps—that is, keymaps that will play different timbres
depending on the attack velocities of your Note On events. Program 12 DynEPiano^EPnoPF,
for example, uses a keymap with two velocity ranges. Each key range in a multi-velocity
keymap contains two or more distinct sample roots that the K2661 chooses between, according
to the attack velocity of the note. To create your own multi-velocity keymaps, Select any
program (like 199 Default Program), and press Edit to enter the Program Editor. Then select the
KEYMAP page, and select one of the multi-velocity keymaps as the value for the Keymap
parameter (the multi-velocity keymaps are IDs 31–38). The description of the Velocity Crossover
parameter on page 14-38 has more information.
The Keymap Editor is nested within the Program Editor. The first step in using the Keymap
Editor is to select the keymap you want to edit. This is done on the KEYMAP page in the
Program Editor, using the Keymap parameter. Once you've done this, just press the Edit button,
and you'll enter the Keymap Editor. If you want to edit a different keymap, return to the
KEYMAP page in the Program Editor and select the desired keymap. If you want to build a
keymap from scratch, start with the keymap 168 Silence (see Building a Keymap on page 14-39).
This keymap template contains one key range from C 0 to G 10, and is a convenient starting
14-35